The coming arrow was aimed at Qiu Yue. It sped was so fast that it could not be avoided. Xin Mei subconsciously closed her eyes and the next moment she heard the sharp sound of the arrow splitting the air and twirled pa.s.sed her ear – it was just a warning arrow. Midway, the arrow had changed its direction towards the sky, so, no one had been hurt from its trajectory.

Xin Mei breathed out a sigh of relief. She wiped out a cold sweat and turned back to ask, “Who is that man?! How dare he coldly released that arrow!“

“He’s from the General’s clan, so, we can’t run away. Otherwise, he would rather kill us than letting his clan suffer a disgrace because we have run away.”

The war demon on the high platform pulled his long bow again, but he did not shoot. It was like a silent cold threat.

“What"s a b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” Xin Mei became angry, “I knew that those with red eyes are not good people!”

Keep your voice down... Silan wept silently. Did she forgot that the General had red-eyes, too?

“I’m going to talk to him.”

Xin Mei jumped on the back of Lie Yun Horse and shook the reins. Lie Yun Horse, who was full of anger, spread his four hooves and ran against the wind. They left Silan’s terrified cry behind. In the blink of an eye, they finally arrived above the high platform.

The archers who were stationed on the high platform, one after another, took aim at Xin Mei. Li Yan recognized that she was Lu Qianqiao’s wife. He had to put down his long bow and then, he turned around. “General Bai, don’t hurt that girl. She’s just an ordinary civilian.”

Bai Zongying face sunk like it had been in the water. As if he did not hear Li Yan’s words, his eyes didn’t stray from the smoke filled battlefield. This noob translation was translated by a noob translator きつね at xin-shou.blogspot.com. 

By cupping his hands together, Li Yan gave a salute to Xin Mei from afar, “Miss Xin, did my elder brother let you leave the Imperial Mausoleum?”

“Come here.” Xin Mei crooked a finger at him. (T/N : Lol...Li Yan have been ignored.)

Li Yan hesitated to leap so, he just stood on his horseback like a big bird, “... Here I am. Miss Xin, where is my elder brother?”

Xin Mei also stood on her horseback as she looked up and stared angrily at him, “You want to kill Lu Qianqiao!” (T/N : Why the h.e.l.l are these two standing on the horsebacks?) 

“How could I kill him...” Li Yan shook his head, “You don’t know my clan rules.”

“He can’t even move, and that b.a.s.t.a.r.d general on the high platform only give him tattered troops! While you’re busy staring at him with your arrows! Such rules are not fair at all!“

Li Yan did not answer.

He himself knew that this was really unfair. Bai Zongying hated Li Chaoyang as she was the one responsible for instigating the Emperor to send Liu Qianqiao to be a hindrance for him. The fighting capacity of the 2,000 troops distributed to Lu Qianqao was not as good as that of 500 ordinary soldiers. Even if Liu Qianqiao immediately woke up, he might not be able to win the battle.

Even so, one should never back down.

The war demon clan couldn"t really understand on how to be sleek and flexible, with pride bordering on stubbornness and stupidity. What matters to them was not who killed them, but where they would die. Either they died in the battlefield or they died on the bed, worrying about it day by day. Only when they were forced to the extreme of death would they gained their real strength – which was the real truth about them.

“You’re just waiting for him to die... No! You take your swords and force him to die! For a war demon to awake such way, no wonder your clan is getting less and less people! You killed them all by yourselves!”

“Miss Xin, please be careful with your words,” warned Li Yan with a heavy face.

Tangyuan (lit soup ball)
Source Bing @ Cherrylet via Wiki

“I have nothing left to say.” Xin Mei looked straight at him. “Instead of killing your own clansman with your arrows, you’d better ask the b.a.s.t.a.r.d general on the high platform to send more people to kill the enemies. The peasant soldiers make trouble all day long because of the generals only know eating and not even working! Can a general looks as round as tangyuan?!”

Li Yan looked back at Bai Zongying. Xin Mei’s voice was extremely loud. He estimated that Bai zongying could hear every word clearly, since... his face was greener than green vegetables and he was shaking with anger.

“Open the door!”

Broadsword
Source Baike Baidu

Bai Zongying roared as he grabbed his broadsword, mounted his horse, and led a group of elite soldiers out of the gate. When the 2,000 disabled soldiers outside the mountain pa.s.s gate suddenly received reinforcements, or when they saw Old General Bai personally led the troops, their morale suddenly rose and a subtle change took place in their dangerous situation.

While, in the distance, Silan who was on the back of the Qiu Yue, took advantage of his spare time to heal himself. The monster’s resilience was very strong. After a while, his wound finally stopped bleeding. He pulled himself together, turned over and jumped down. He waved his long sword as he continued to fight the enemies. He was much braver than before, and in an instant, he emptied a small s.p.a.ce around him.

“Yeah. That’s much more fair.” Xin Mei crossed her arms and nodded solemnly.

Li Yan looked at her, and then looked at the benign change in the war below. He suddenly had another level of respect for Lu Qianqao – it was really good for Young Master to choose such a tough wife.

“That is... I am Li Yan, a member of the Li Clan.” He respectfully and politely introduced himself.

The corner of Xin Mei’s mouth curved, showing him a sunny smile, as one of her hand slipped into her bag and touched the newly bought two packs of pepper powders. After her first battle with Li Min, she thought that pepper powder was more reliable than throwing knives and poison darts at certain times.

Just as she was preparing to spread it out with the wind to retaliate against Li Yan for the cold way he released his arrow at her, suddenly, she heard a shrill and long roar from afar. It was like a wild animal forced into a dead end or a mandrill wailing at the moon. It was really creepy. This noob translation was translated by a noob translator きつね at xin-shou.blogspot.com. 

Li Yan’s face changed in an instant. He jumped off from his horseback and ran like mad to the battlefield ahead.

Huh, what’s going on? Xin Mei turned her horse’s head around and saw in mid-air, Qiu Yue flapping its wings, frightened out of its wits (Chinese idiom : panic-stricken) as a man fell straight from its back – Lu Qianqao!

The whole world seemed to slowdown as Lu Qianqao fell slowly to the ground, and... slowly stood up! Brandishing his sword in his ecstasy, Silan drove away all the peasants soldiers who were in his way and ran towards Lu Qianqao.

“General! Did you go through the awakening?!”

No one answered his question. Lu Qianqiao tilted his head slightly, with mud stained half of his face. His facial expression was empty and callous. His eyes completely lost their spirits, as he just stood there, motionless, like a stone man.

“General?” Silan called again while feeling a bit uncertain.

The long sword held by Guan Yu (middle) was called reclining moon blade/sword or yanyuedo. From left : Liu Bei, Guan Yu & Zhang Fei. The 3 main characters of the Three Kingdom.
Source The Field Museum via Wiki

The next moment, a pair of lifeless red eyes were on him. Silan felt his throat tighten as Lu Qianqao abruptly grabbed his throat and single-handedly lifted him up. The reclining moon sword (yanyuedao) in his hand was easily taken away. As Silan struggled hard, he suddenly felt that he had been thrown away and he hit the ground hard.

The war demon, who had not yet fully awakened, was roaring. His mournful voice penetrated the entire battlefield, so everyone could not help but looked at him.

The long sword drew an elegant yet sharp curve in the wind which made the bloods that were still on the blade, fell on the ground, drop by drop. Without any expression on his face, Lu Qianqao carried the long sword and charged into the crowd, like an arrow being released from a bow string.

Without rules, without intellect, his entire being had seemingly transformed into a sharp-edged treasure sword. Wherever he went, he couldn’t be held back. He was not only killing the peasants soldiers, but his people as well. No one had the ability to withstand the power of reclining moon long sword that seemed coming from h.e.l.l inferno. Wherever he waved it, b.l.o.o.d.y broken limbs would be all over the ground. This noob translation was translated by a noob translator きつね at xin-shou.blogspot.com. 

Xin Mei, who was riding Lie Yun Horse, ran like mad, while avoiding the glistening lights of the sword all the way, as she chased after him.

“Lu Qianqiao!” She shouted out his name.

……

He seemed to hear her voice. He turned with a smiling face, as he held out his arms to her with a gentle smile on his face.

“Come here, my darling.”

With a flushed face, Xin Mei threw herself at his chest.

“We shall never part again!”

…………

Above was just an imagination.

He seemed to respond to her voice, as he abruptly turned around. He raised the reclining moon long sword and split straight over. Lie Yun Horse neigh sadly, as the sharp wind from the sword had cut apart a small lump of skin from the crown of its head. Xin Mei felt a sharp pain on her shoulder – his knife wind had cut a hole on her shoulder! (T/N : Poor Lie Yun Horse (T⌓T) Bad Lu Qianqao! (ʘдʘ╬) )

Xin Mei got off the horseback, turned around and ran as fast as rabbit.

A stunned Silan shouted, “Where are you going?! The General is awake!”

She looked around and found a reliable half-human sized boulder. She quickly hid behind it. “I’m looking for a place to hide. Lu Qianqiao seems to have lost his mind.”

Eh?! She ran all the way to the battlefield after nine deaths and still alive (Chinese idiom : a narrow escape) not to live and die with the General?! At such times, shouldn’t she rush forward to hug the General in tears and called out his name who had lost his mind?!

Silan was fl.u.s.tered and exasperated, “It’s just that you haven’t adapted to the huge power of a war demon yet! Maybe he will go sober when you go over there!“

Xin Mei craned her head out to look and saw that Lu Qianqiao was still killing people with his sword. She immediately retracted her head. It was one thing to accompany him, but being killed by him was another matter. This was obviously a symptom of insanity, and she used to look for death.

“You call his name! He can’t hear anyone else voice, but he can certainly hear yours!“ Silan still did not give up.

Eh, just called him over and let him chopped them into minced meat with his sword?

Xin Mei looked at him awkwardly, “You... Have you been possessed by Lord Zhao?”

Silan immediately turned stiff as if he had been thunderstruck.

“If this awakening is a succeed, then, Young Master has smoothly survived the transformation disaster!”

Li Yan did not know when did he stand on the big stone as he opened his mouth with joy.

Xin Mei looked up at him, “Why are you hiding here too?! Won’t you go there and stop him from killing those people?”

Li Yan was dumbfounded for a while, “Young Master has finally awaken, so how am I supposed to stop him? He can kill as many as he likes, and it doesn’t even matter if he kills them all.“

“He also killed his Majesty’s troops! Aren’t you working for the Emperor?”

There was a grim look on Li Yan’s face, “The war demons aren’t really loyal to anyone except towards G.o.d in Heaven.”

…...But when he was done killing everyone there, he would come and kill them next, right?

Xin Mei could feel her heart beat wildly as she quietly stretched out half of her body. Liu Qianqao had left her at a good distance with bloods soaking him from hid head to his feet – they were bloods of his others unfortunate victims.

Many people surrounded him, but none dared to approach him. They looked at him in horror and silence. He was howling mournfully, as if he was enduring a great pain. He tightly gripped the reclining moon long sword. Since it had cut too many people, the sword shrivelled as the edges severely split to the ground, with each splitter was long and narrow.

Him, right now... Was it really painful?

She looked down at her hands, which were sweaty. She had never seen Lu Qianqao like this before. He was completely unapproachable and fully consumed by his war demon instinct to kill crazily. Surely it didn’t mean that...... She really needed to do it the way Silan just said, which was embracing him, and called his name again and again in the cuckoo cries blood (fig plaintive lament) voice?

...... Those were very disgusting acts. Just forget it.

The reclining moon sword was suddenly raised high, as Lu Qianqao was ready to throw it. His target was – the white tent on the top of the hill in the distance! Wasn’t it the camp belonged to Wu Shuang, the leader of the peasant soldiers?

The long sword whole body was coloured with a layer of red light. It came out of his hand with a shrill whistle and shot out like a red meteor. Like the last he killed the tiger demon, the long sword seemed to have its own life, flying up and down around the tent, tearing it to pieces in the blink of an eye. It burst open together with the pieces, and there were large pieces of flesh and blood, presumably originated from inside the tent.

“Ever victorious leader! It’s ever victorious leader!”

The peasant soldiers began to get agitated. They knew that the person inside the tent was Wu Shuang’s younger brother, a self-proclaimed ever victorious leader of martial arts. The second leader had died in silence. The blow to them was too great. Even Wu Shuang was stunned for a long while before he suddenly regained his consciousness. He clapped his horse, turned around and flee, “Retreat! Retreat temporarily for today!” This noob translation was translated by a noob translator きつね at xin-shou.blogspot.com. 

The demoralized peasant soldiers scattered like birds and beasts (Chinese idiom : to flee in all directions) as they retreated back thirty li (a traditional unit of length, equivalent to 0.5 km). On the sixth day of the early eighth lunar month, the Emperor’s armies had won a small victory in their first war at Jiaping Mountain Pa.s.s.

General Bai Zongying came over on his horse with a complicated look. Lu Qianqiao stood still, neither shouting nor killing. He had turned into an incoherent stone man as he raised his b.l.o.o.d.y face and looked at the sky emptily.

“General of Flying Calvary...”

Bai Zongying only said those four words, when Lu Qianqiao suddenly waved his sword toward him. Bai Zongying’s loyal adjutant immediately rushed forward to block him. The sword cut the adjutant into half and he fell onto the ground miserably.

“You...... What are you doing?!” Bai Zongying was so surprised that he fell from the horse. He rolled and crawled (Chinese idiom : trying frantically to escape) till he could flee.

The long knife was raised again. This time, it was aimed at the Old General"s fat face.

“Lu Qianqao!”

Suddenly, a young girl’s voice came from behind, and Lu Qianqiao’s hand which was raising the long sword instantly stopped for a moment. (T/N : Did the long sword acted like a boomerang? Maybe. His weapon did return to him when he was fighting the tiger demon.)

With everyone watching, Xin Mei picked up a big stone from the ground and hurled it at him, “Stop acting out of your mind!”

Dong! The big stone hit precisely on the back of the insane General of Flying Calvary’s head, as the long sword slipped off his hand and he fell flat on the ground.

“What have you done?!” Silan almost pa.s.sed out himself.

“Well, I just want him to be quiet...” Xin Mei seldom felt guilty.

Lu Qianqao was really quiet now. Extremely quiet, since he had already pa.s.sed out.